The document discusses the untapped potential of pedagogic research in higher education. It outlines arguments for the value of pedagogic research such as developing evidence-based teaching practices and illustrating best practices. However, pedagogic research often faces low status compared to disciplinary research. Some reasons discussed include research being too local in scope, over reliance on grand theories, and use of educational jargon. The document provides strategies for improving pedagogic research such as building writing communities, creating dedicated writing spaces, and using more creative research methods.

1. The untapped potential of pedagogic research
Tansy Jessop
LEaDER Launch, 8th January 2019

2. The direction of travel
• Your thoughts about pedagogic research
• The case for doing pedagogic research
• The state of play: who, what and why
• Why the low status? Is there a problem here?
• Five strategies for LEaDER to consider

3. Your thoughts about pedagogic
research
• What images or words spring to mind when you think
about pedagogic research? Don’t over-think your
responses!
• Go to www.menti.com and type in 98 05 53

5. The case for doing pedagogic research
Why do you think it is worth spending time doing?
What arguments exist for its value?
Chat to the person next to you.

6. Arguments for pedagogic research
• Less teaching by trial and error; more evidence-based
• Encourages risk and experimentation
• Invites students into a conversation about education
• Develops and models curious habits of mind
• It illustrates that there are directions of best practice
but very few pat answers
• There is a growing research field in HE – this brings
credibility to teaching as a field of study

7. What is going on here
with student emotions?
What can we learn from
the Arts to connect with
students better?What happens if
we turn facts-
first on its head
and get students
doing research
from day one?
How can
psychology help
us teach better?
Or is context
more significant?What is going on here?
Why this and not that?
What theories from
elsewhere help?

8. It keeps us reading…

10. …and writing
The act of writing is itself an act of discovery or, in
Dewey’s terms, “wrestling with the conditions of the
problem” at hand. Behind the scenes of a finished
product is a messy process of exploratory writing,
conversation, discarded drafts, midnight agony.
John Bean 1996

11. The state of play: then
Universities today are homes of
research into almost every subject save
one – themselves. There are few fields
of social science in which painstaking
investigation is more necessary and less
often pursued.
Lord James of Rusholme, 1965,
cited in Haggis 2009, from Maton 2004.

12. The state of play: now

13. Exponential growth: a snapshot
Tight, M. 2012.
Higher education
research 2000–
2010: changing
journal publication
patterns. HERD.
31:5, 723-740,

14. But what about books?
HEFCE, 2016.
Publication
patterns in
research
underpinning
impact in REF2014
A report to HEFCE
by Digital Science

15. Journals are #1 currency

16. Who writes pedagogic research?
Tight, M. 2012. Higher education research 2000–2010: changing journal publication patterns. HERD. 31:5, 723-740,
6 11 17 25 31
48 57
79
109
184
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Departmental location of first authors

17. 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Course Design
Student experience
Academic work
System policy
Institutional management
Quality
Teaching/Learning
Knowledge & research
Themes in 567 articles in 15 journals
(2010)

18. HE pedagogic research in REF 2014
HE-focused submissions = 9% of the Education UOA 25.
Majority of HE-related outputs were in sector specific:
• Studies in Higher Education (64)
• Higher Education (28)
• Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education (25)
• Teaching in Higher Education (20)
• British Educational Research Journal (7/155 = HE focused).
Cotton, D., W. Miller and P. Kneale. 2018. The Cinderella of academia: Is higher education pedagogic research undervalued in
UK research assessment? Studies in Higher Education. Vol. 43, No. 9, 1625–1636

19. The status problem
‘Proper’ research
Pedagogic
research?

20. The unintended consequences of SOTL

21. Has SOTL reinforced the research-teaching
divide?
Scholarship of discovery
‘Proper’ research
Subject-based research
Scholarship of teaching
High status
Not ‘proper’ research
Pedagogic research
Low status
Macfarlane, B. 2011. “Prizes, Pedagogic Research and Teaching Professors: Lowering the Status of Teaching and Learning Through
Bifurcation.” Teaching in Higher Education 16 (1): 127–30.

22. Bridging the divide
The distinction between ‘subject-based’ and
‘pedagogic’ research is entirely erroneous. What
really matters is whether a piece of research is
based on sound methods, has something interesting
or useful to ‘say’ and has been properly peer
reviewed before publication. The only important
distinction is between good research and poor
research.
Macfarlane, B. 2011. “Prizes, Pedagogic Research and Teaching Professors: Lowering the Status of Teaching and Learning Through
Bifurcation.” Teaching in Higher Education 16 (1): 127–30.

23. But are there common flaws with
pedagogic research?
• What common flaws have you spotted in pedagogic
research?
• Go to www.menti.com and type in 83 15 73

24. My stab at common problems
1) Too local problem
2) New kid on the block problem
3) Grand theory problem, with very few detractors
4) Obfuscation in educational jargon problem

25. Problem 1 and 2: Too local? Too new?
Understanding the grammar of knowledge (Karl Maton)

26. Problem 3: The grand theory problem
(Haggis 2003; 2009)
Cognitive psychology
Approaches to learning
Curricular innovation
Social context
Critical perspectives
Discourse/writing
HE – Higher Education; SiHE – Studies in Higher Education; THE – Teaching in Higher Education

27. One of the fundamental problems is that it removes the individual
learner from the richness and complexity of his/multiple contexts. It
also constructs 'the learner' as a being passively created by
experience', and passively amenable to reconstruction as a 'deep'
learner through set of moulding processes that take place within the
university. The learner, in this model, is a human being without
agency.
(Haggis 2003, 98).

28. Problem 4: Inelegant, bland, jargon-
filled writing
Helen Sword (2009)
Writing higher
education differently:
a manifesto on
style, Studies in
Higher Education,
34:3, 319-336

29. Making it happen:
Strategies and
insights

30. Strategy 1: Tap into rich resources
about writing

31. Tell everyone the good news!
You can learn
how to write
better!
Very few mega
talented
individuals are
born with a quill in
their hands!

32. Strategy 2: Explore feelings about
writing

33. Feelings signify important things
• Writing is difficult, probably the most difficult
aspect of an academic’s work
• The struggle is painful and makes people vulnerable
• There is a hint of excitement about writing
• It is an opportunity to build community

34. Strategy 3: Build a community of
writers

35. Writing group for 1 x day, once a month
• Creative activity
• Peer review activity
• Structured writing retreat – paired objectives
• Silence, no phones, no tablets
• Check in with one another
• Communal lunch
• Celebrate successes
• Pub to relax afterwards

36. A writing group activity for you!
Line 1: Your Name
Line 2: Four character traits
Line 3: Lover of… (list three things)
Line 4: Who feels… (three items)
Line 5: Who needs…. (three items)
Line 6: Who fears…. (one item)
Line 7: Who hopes for… (three items)
Line 8: And who finds … (three items)
(Adapted from John Bean, 1996, 110)

37. Strategy 4: Create a sacred space
for writing
Away
with you
emails!
Do not
disturb!
Believe it or
not – this is
real work!
That
meeting
can wait – I
have leaves
to munch!

38. Strategy 5: Encourage inventive
methods
Too much
• Survey/questionnaire
• Interviews
• Focus groups
• Mixed methods
Too little
• Observation
• Ethnographic ‘thick’
description
• Visual methods
• Creative approaches

39. PS Don’t forget to celebrate process
and success!

40. References
Cotton, D. , W. Miller & P. Kneale (2018) The Cinderella of academia: Is higher
education pedagogic research undervalued in UK research assessment?, Studies in
Higher Education, 43:9, 1625-1636
Haggis, T. (2003) Constructing Images of Ourselves? A Critical Investigation into
'Approaches to Learning‘ Research in Higher Education. British Educational
Research Journal, Vol. 29, No. 1 89-104
Haggis, T. (2009) What have we been thinking of? A critical overview of 40 years of
student learning research in higher education, Studies in Higher Education, 34:4,
377-390.
HEFCE, (2016) Publication patterns in research underpinning impact in REF2014. A
report to HEFCE by Digital Science.
Macfarlane, B. 2011. “Prizes, Pedagogic Research and Teaching Professors:
Lowering the Status of Teaching and Learning Through Bifurcation.” Teaching in
Higher Education 16 (1): 127–30.
Sword, H. (2009) Writing higher education differently: a manifesto on style, Studies
in Higher Education, 34:3, 319-336.
Tight, M. 2012. Higher education research 2000–2010: changing journal publication
patterns. HERD. 31:5, 723-740,